Debate Ground Rules
Submitted by Mac Whatley on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 11:07am
I've been worrying about controlling the chaos as moderator of the 6th District debate tomorrow night, so here are some groundrules I'm proposing after a night's research.
They're based on the usual "Presidential Debate" procedures established in 1988 when the League of Women Voters revived national political debating. No debate this year has really followed any standard format, mainly because they started out with large numbers of candidates which diminished through the process, so the time for responses has grown proportionately.
Any one is welcome to give me feed back here- these Ground Rules aren't carved in stone, and I haven't emailed them to the candidates or journalists yet (read it here first!) The debate will begin with each candidate having two (2) minutes to make a short opening statement, the order being determined in advance by draw.
Then the panel of journalists will ask prepared questions, keeping them short and limited to one topic, and indicating whether the question is to be answered either by all or by one specific candidate.
The candidates may take no more than 90 seconds (1 1/2 minutes) to respond to any question.
After the candidate(s) complete their answers, any other candidate(s) criticized by name will receive 30 seconds to rebut the charge.
The moderator will attempt to exercise some control through all of this, while keeping track of the time elapsed.
After the panelists finish asking questions, at least three questions submitted by audience members will be posed to the candidate(s) by the moderator.
Finally, each candidate will receive two (2) minutes to make his or her closing remarks and the debate will end.
Sounds like you've got a good idea on how to keep control.
Do you have to limit them to 90 seconds? That seems like it's hardly enough time to say one's name, let alone explain where one stands on a particular issue. May I suggest giving them up to 3 minutes to answer, and 90 seconds to respond, or would that make the debate go on too long?
I'm only saying this as someone who has been a debate judge in actual tournaments - I can't imagine someone being able to make a case in 90 seconds. Just my thoughts.
I totally support what you're doing, Mac, and as I said earlier, wish I could be there tomorrow. I hope you have a decent crowd of folks to watch.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors
I'm open to giving more time
but Wayne Abraham told me they tried to keep the Guilford College debate to an hour, which seems short to me-- presidential debates are 90 minutes. But I noticed the last democratic presidential debate gave just 90 seconds to answer, so I used that.
3 candidates x 90 seconds per answer = 4.5 minutes per question. When you add time for the initial question, plus any 30 seconds rebuttals, that gets up to the neighborhood of 6 minutes per question, which means about 10 questions maximum in an hour. That doesn't seem like much, either.
Actually 2 minutes is fine with me, because it's easier for me to time 2 minutes on the stopwatch than 90 seconds!
I have developed a new appreciation for what the big-time campaigns have to go through in order to put together one of these presidential debates!
You know what's easier than a stop watch?
An Ipod!
I'm not kidding. It has a timer function under "extras", and it's a lot easier to read and use.
I'm really going to push my family to see if a birthday celebration can't be a candidate debate. After all, we all want to see Coble go. Hmmm - are there restaurants near by?
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors
Celebrations would be at home
just across the street at "Timothy's" (130 S. Church St., Asheboro, right beside the city Farmer's Market), which is the nicest restaurant in town. They take reservations- 336-625-1300. But beware: this is Randolph County, and Asheboro is DRY, so don't expect them to have alcohol. You can brown-bag, though- if you and your crew are old enough to remember how to do that. ;-)
After this is all over, I'll be wanting to brown-bag something myself! (But my law office and its refrigerator are only a block away!)